Prior to the Tuesday, June 25, school board meeting, the members of the Metropolitan School District of Wabash County board heard a presentation from Performance Services, who gave the board a run down of what shape their elementary school buildings are in.

Some HVAC units are beyond their life expectancy, but there were no surprises in the report, Assistant Superintendent Chris Kuhn said.

“As with any building, things need to be done to keep them going,” Kuhn said. “Some of the items they talked about, especially from the mechanical side, we know that some of them are reaching their life expectancy. That doesn’t mean they need to be replaced right away, but we can get to a point where they break down on us and put you in a situation where you have to replace them when you weren’t necessarily prepared to replace them.”

A small room in the Wabash County Clerk’s office will serve as the new home for the county’s voting machines and electronic poll books.

The Wabash County Election Board approved a resolution moving the machines from the Wabash County Courthouse to the clerk’s office in the Judicial Center to comply with a new state statute. The designation had to be made by July 1.

Under the resolution, the equipment will be kept in a locked room with only four individuals – the clerk, the deputy clerk of voter registration and elections, the center’s security team and the head custodian – will have access to the room.

Wabash County Solid Waste was approved for an additional appropriation of $245,000 for capital outlay in an effort to cut down on the illegal dumping of contaminated waste that is not recyclable.

Solid Waste spends $77,000 annually on top of its flat rate getting rid of items which cannot be recycled.

“Over quite a few years, since we began the recycling programming, one thing we are faced with with drop site recycling, is contamination,” Executive Director Jen Rankin said. “I can’t be at all of them at all times of the night, and boy are they good at timing when (no one is around). Our vendor deals with a majority of it.

That costs Solid Waste roughly $6,400 in additional fees per month, because the vendor is responsible for removing the contaminated material, like diapers for example, and taking it to the landfill.

“Drop site contamination is about the same across the state,” Rankin said. “It runs between 15 and 18 to 20 percent in some of the more rural areas. We run at about 18 percent. If in fact we were to take in all this contamination and take it to the landfill, it would cost us to write a check to the landfill. But, (the vendor) increase the cost of our recycling program in order to accommodate for that contamination.”

Dennis Haller holds up an 1812 flag hig family has owned for generations. Haller has been offered as much as $250,000 for the heirloom. Photo by Josh Sigler

By Josh Sigler

jsigler@thepaperofwabash.com

NORTH MANCHESTER – Dennis Haller seems like an ordinary man, living out his years in a small-town, Main Street fashion.
But, tucked away in his house is a secret which is very old and possibly very valuable.

Haller has in his possession a war flag from the Texas secession from Mexico in 1812, making the flag well over 200 years old.